The Neighborhood
by Bjorntheblorg
Summary: After years of moving around and never settling down somewhere, Aubrey was finally ready to find a place to call home. The only problem was she didn't exactly fit in. (Which is fine, really, since no one else did either.)
1. Getting there

She almost wanted to hit something.

(Not that she ever would, her last name carried a weight around her soul that kept her complacent.)

The idea of driving her car into a tree or rock or something big and solid was driving her wild. It was a desperate attempt to control something in her irritation. At least she could feel something, even if it was a slight fear of her own death.

Of course she would never do it, it was undignified, unjustified, and a waste of energy. It wasn't like her parents kicked her out of the house, she chose to leave. They even protected her for goodness sake, not that she needed it, but the more she became like them the better it had been.

Until the incident last week that drove her into such a frenzy she packed up all of her things and drove across the country.

(Okay, not all of them. Just some essentials she couldn't live without until her address was changed for her Amazon deliveries. And until she could find a decent IKEA and Costco.)

Her parents were supportive of what they thought the reason was. Her father thought she was trying to expand the company West, something he thought was a brilliant move for their tech sector. Her stepmother thought she was being a romantic, uprooting herself from her drab southern lifestyle to explore and be seduced by the big city.

The problem was they thought she was moving to Los Angeles, city of dreams.

Really she was two hours south in San Diego.

* * *

Finding the house had been almost too easy, it was a clean neighborhood in the middle of San Diego, not far from anything except the border. She hadn't scouted out the area yet, but in a week there wasn't much time to do anything properly.

In fact the moment she reached the house there were a thousand things she needed to do. Minerva, her partner in crime, had a stack of reports she needed signed and returned through their secured email. She had to contact the local telecommunications company to get her internet set up, and she had to update her address on damn near everything. And the government! The fucking government with anal demands about knowing all about her.

The feelings of rage rebuilt in her belly, burning through her chest. The entire road was painted red with her rage, her hands hurt from how tight they were pressed against the steering while her dashboard turned into a menacing red to warn her about her speed.

She almost drove herself into the sea.

The sea. She had great memories near bodies of water, cooking outdoors was one of the few things that could calm her completely. The sea, that meant she was near her new house!

Perhaps things wouldn't be so bad here.

* * *

It was the dead of night, or in her stepmother's words "hooligan time", when she finally made it up her driveway. She knew there was a bed up there, Minerva used her "connections" to have one ready for her by the time she got home. But, the bed was far from her mind.

She took her luggage, two bags and a backpack, and brought it into the house and up into her room. There would be time to admire the purchase later, right now she had to unpack then read reports.

By the time she finished both tasks the sun was peeking through the window and Aubrey thought it was a great time to take a nap.

Not that she would ever call it that.

It took her a month to get settled in, the internet and utilities took nearly a week to get set up and she had the house cleaned while she flew to San Francisco to visit the West Coast corporate headquarters.

When she finally had her first week at the house, Aubrey realized quickly why the house was so cheap. It wasn't soundproof.

Next door lived some sort of DJ who blasted music well into the night, and it was fair to say Aubrey would have liked some of those songs. At a normal proper time. Not in the middle of the night when she had to get to work by three in the morning.

By the end of her second week there Aubrey was ready to murder the "wannabe" DJ and whoever else lived in that forsaken house.

(She always heard two girls singing at least one song every night. Yes, they sounded heavenly together, but that didn't stop the rage slowly boiling inside of her. And no, she was not jealous.)

Before she could terrorize the neighborhood, and teach the people here why they should be afraid, the nightclub suddenly stopped. It happened to coincide with the first time Aubrey walked around the neighborhood in broad daylight with a coffee in hand.

(Her coffee maker hadn't shipped yet, and she was tired of making Cowboy Coffee.)

But that brought her to the second reason why she could never sell the house. As she walked back there was an Asian girl throwing knives into a target with frightening accuracy. As if the girl knew she captured an audience, she turned around and held up one of her throwing knives before throwing it blind into her target.

She didn't miss.

And as if the DJ wasn't bad enough, in the same cursed house lived a woman with a competitive streak a mile wide. It was around Christmas time when she moved in, one of the blessed things about San Diego was the near-perfect weather while her house in the South would be inches deep in snow.

Minerva thought it would be funny to send her "connections" to her house late at night with yard decorations. Aubrey saw the woman once, when she went out of the house to see with her own eyes the damage done to her yard. The ginger looked at her with an amused face.

The next day the DJ's entire house was covered in lights, and their yard was covered in as non-religious as possible Christmas scenes.

Good Lord she was going to die here.

At the very least her stress and rage levels were down. It was a strange feeling when she suddenly lost much of the old stress she had carried with her from her parents. She was too springy, almost weightless as all the old thoughts that would have sent her into a homicidal rage now made her shrug.

It felt… good? Nice?

They were the kind of people she would have never associated with in her old world, so she avoided them. But the universe had other intentions for her, unfortunately.

* * *

The doorbell was a strange sound to hear. No one visited her, and Minerva did as she pleased quietly. Aubrey was in the middle of _White Fang_ , and she debated on whether or not she should ignore the bell. It was her scheduled downtime, so she didn't really have to get up.

Her nature got the best of her and she stood up.

'Be polite to every visitor and your neighbors.' Her stepmother's voice rang through her head as she opened the door.

In front of her was a short brunette clad in plaid and thick headphones around her neck. The DJ.

Aubrey had become so relaxed, complacent really, that she didn't snap at the girl. Instead she smiled.

"Hello." She said.

The brunette gave her a weak shaky smile back. "Hi, I'm Beca, your neighbor and gosh, I was wondering if I could borrow a cup of sugar."

Aubrey blinked. "Sugar?"

"Yeah, sorry about the strange request, we ran out and my wife's baking for the school fundraiser."

She looked like Atlas with the weight of the world resting on her tiny shoulders. Aubrey thought about saying no and the social consequences attached to it. If she said no, nothing would come of her stay here. She would always be that outsider stealing glimpses of the inside, and years ago she would have been alright with that.

But, now she was tired.

"Yes of course, come in. I'll get you a bag."

She should have thought about it more thoroughly, she realized as she tried to sleep. She was regiment, control, structure. She had no clue what would happen now, and that was terrifying.

* * *

The doorbell rang again, this time Aubrey was in the middle of _Kazan_. Work had dried up, driving Aubrey crazy, She was born to work, not to be idle. Good God she would die if Minerva ever forced her to retire.

She stood up faster than she cared to admit and opened the door to Beca and a plate of what looked like caricatures of animals.

"For you." Beca said, either a soft grimace or smile on her face.

"Thank you." Aubrey said, taking the plate of baked lumps of sugar from the shorter woman's hands.

* * *

It's nearly a month later when the doorbell rings again. Aubrey is in the middle of writing an essay to Minerva about how _Kazan_ and _White Fang_ are basically the same novel, and that _Call of the Wild_ and _White Fang_ are the same novel in reverse. She almost misses it, her creative anger blocks out the entire world outside of her canvass of words.

"Beca?" She is surprised, but not entirely.

The brunette smiles at her and squeaks out an "Hi", before her teeth grit and her jaw visibly clenches.

"I need to borrow some more sugar, please."

The signs of Beca's irritation are there, Aubrey's almost shocked at how crude they are. Beca's jaw juts out, her eyes are narrow passes and her clenched hands are plain in the daylight. And Beca must think she's hiding it well.

"Of course, how much do you need?" If Aubrey is known for anything, its will be for her polite manners.

(It makes cutting people down so much easier.)

"A cup and a half please."

Beca groans and grasps her ears as she waits, leaning on the counter. There were a few things she could do in the moment, finish measuring out the sugar and sending Beca on her way, or asking the DJ about her troubles.

She almost kicks Beca out of her house, a lifetime of loneliness leaves her ill equipped to help anyone. But, there is a sadistic part of her desperate to try.

"Beca," Aubrey said while pouring the sugar into a bag. "Not that I'm upset or anything, but you do you keep asking me for sugar?"

Beca's eyes flared and Aubrey was worried she had unleashed a beast upon her house.

(Which would have been a bitch since she had just cleaned up the entire house for spring and even bought herself some new expensive furniture. And she was also worried that she had upset the brunette, feeding into her self loathing and anguish. )

"I'm sorry…" The words died in her throat as Beca shook her head.

"No, I'm not mad at you." She clarified, looking at the bag. "It's Chloe. She refuses to buy a bag because she thinks I would eat the entire thing to give myself diabetes on purpose. Which is stupid, because she bakes so much I might as well have."

"Why?" Aubrey was at a loss for words, she couldn't wrap her head around it. How could someone love another person so much?

Beca shrugged. "That was my reaction too." She looked up, thoughtful. "Honestly, if I wanted to leave her without a divorce I would just run away instead of trying to kill myself slowly. Quicker and easier."

Aubrey nods, reasonable, and hands over the bag.

"If you're free Friday, you should swing by. We always have a block party on Fridays during the winter. It'll be fun." Beca says as she leaves. "It starts at five at my place."


	2. Among Strangers

They were face to face for the first time since she moved. Minerva wasn't drinking her whiskey, instead of swirling it around the glass as if she were thinking about something. Aubrey held hers still.

Minerva was a half-feral wolf tamed only because it would get her more meat. It gave every one of their sit downs a dangerous vibe, but they had been friends for nearly their entire lives now. And besides, Aubrey was a wolf too.

Perhaps more feral than Minerva even.

"You aren't popular right now." Minerva stated, finally putting down her drink. "I need you to make a new fixation."

"Done."

* * *

Aubrey wasn't about to go to the block party. That would open a whole new can of worms that she didn't have the social energy to deal with. Beca's sporadic intrusions into her life were near the limit of what she could take. Constant contact with more than one person sounded exhausting.

The thing was, of course, she was homebound. She couldn't really show her face out in public, just because the neighborhood didn't know of her sins didn't mean there was someone waiting in the shadows. That was another thing too, she didn't have the energy to avoid all the paparazzi.

Her phone rang, pulling her back into reality. She looked around, unsure of where she put the device. It wasn't used for much, she bought it in cash from a cheap looking phone store that still sold flip phones. She didn't want the flip phone in the first place, but Minerva had demanded it so she sent a text to Minerva the moment she bought it.

"Yes?" She said. They had no use for greetings, either they knew who was on the line or refused to pick up.

"My sources say there is growing sympathy for you after your last stunt," Minerva said. "I'm quite pleased."

"You should be. I always deliver."

"I know. Go to the party, I have a plan."

By now Aubrey was used to Minerva knowing everything. She knew everything about her blonde in crime too.

(Right now Minerva was about to have a romantic dinner with her love. And then something forbidden in much of the world and illegal in parts. )

Aubrey sighed. They both learned early on if the other had a plan it was best to follow. That's how Minerva gained her empire, and that's how Aubrey got out of many scandals.

"Alright Minerva. Have a good dinner."

* * *

San Diego never really got cold, may be chilly, but never cold enough for snow. She stood in a thin trench coat looking at the door, unable to walk forward and open it.

'Are you a coward or a Posen?' Her father's harsh voice rang in her ears.

She clenched her teeth, she was a Posen damn it!

The rage boiled over and it carried her out of the house over a few hundred feet to where the block party thrived. The first thing she noticed was the sounds, Good Lord it was loud. She took a breath and tried not to panic at the noise.

Fuck the music was worsening her tinnitus. It was louder than the beating of her heart, louder than the roars of her father, so loud God above could hear. He must have liked it, no one was dead yet.

In her pocket, she had her weapon. Its metallic body felt cold and firm against her warm clammy flesh. She could do this, she would be fine.

"Hey!" Aubrey almost took out her weapon from the shock. Beca rapidly walked toward her and it took all of the blonde's strength of will to not attack the short DJ.

"Hi Beca." Aubrey fell into her coping mechanism, smiling without meaning it and being light-hearted when she wanted blood.

"Hello, I'm happy you made it. Come with me," Beca beckoned toward the house. ", we have food and drinks inside!"

The spread of food was terrifying to look at. Open half-used containers of store-bought spreads lay everywhere on the table. It was a den of bacteria and viruses. Aubrey looked around and tried not to grimace, who knew how long the food had been out?

Beca pointed her to the drinks, she was eternally grateful all the drinks were sealed single serve cans, not a big bowl everyone dipped in.

(In the circles Minerva and Aubrey ran in, bowls were very common among people you didn't trust. It was a taunt, a public display of trust or distrust that created enemies and friends in a single sip.)

"Have a beer and relax."

* * *

Aubrey sat on the couch watching the other Bellas interact with each other. It turned out they were all from the same high school, they were in high school acapella together and just stayed bonded for life.

Fat Amy, a rambunctious blonde with a "fat heart" as she described it, was currently belting out the lyrics to a Christina Perri song Aubrey felt was once popular but couldn't remember for the life of her.

Was she having the time of her life? Probably not, but she liked sitting still in the noise. For a few moments in her lonely existence, she didn't need a drink or a video to make her feel less alone.

The couch sank next to her, Aubrey looked up to see Beca hanging off the arm of the couch slowly sipping a cold beer.

"Hey." Beca said.

"Hi."

"I see you don't like parties."

Aubrey looked up, frozen in guilt. "No!" She shook her head.

"No, I like parties, this, they… there are a bit too many people here. That's all."

Beca shook her head, "No worries. I know, the Bellas are a bit of a handful. But, I couldn't think of a better way to welcome you to the neighborhood."

"Thank you." Aubrey said.

"Beer?"

"No thank you."

(The last time she drank with Minerva, well, her father got involved.)

Beca looked at her, and Aubrey was worried that the brunette took offense. She wanted to correct that, she had to live with them after all, but then Beca kept talking as if nothing happened.

"So what do you do for fun?"

"I read, I've been reading 19th-century dog-wolf novels," Aubrey said, the only thing she could think about really beside the party was her lengthy email-essay to Minerva that she had to polish up tonight.

(It was only 162 pages long. Bedside reading, honest.)

"Oh, like White Fang?" Beca asked. "Jack London?"

"Yes, personally I find old classics generally highly overrated, but I did enjoy White Fang," Aubrey said. "I thought Call of the Wild was a pastoral fantasy of the American male imagination."

Beca raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah, I would argue that Call of the Wild was a better book than White Fang."

"Oh, really…"

* * *

Chloe frowned the moment she realized she didn't know where Beca was. Not that she was controlling of her wife, but she generally knew where Beca was and vise versa. It wasn't uncommon for them to send each other messages to touch bases.

She checked her phone in case she missed a text from her wife. There was nothing, except for a game notification.

"Hey, have you guys seen Beca?" Chloe asked a group of girls in the middle of karaoke.

It was Stacie's turn, so _S &M_ was blaring through Beca's work speakers, and Chloe had to fight over the sound to be heard. Fat Amy noticed her and got the brunette science teacher to bring the song down a notch.

"Have you guys seen Beca?" Chloe repeated, her eyes flitting around the group of girls.

Fat Amy shook her head, while the others shrugged. Stacie thought about it for a moment before pointing towards the couch.

"I saw her with a new blonde, the neighbor from down the street that you both thought was a ghost or something."

All of her fear turned into curiosity. They had been together for far too long for Chloe to think that Beca would ever cheat on her, but she knew Beca. Beca had a hard time bonding with anyone, it took the Bellas a year before Beca would even talk to them outside of their club. If Beca brought a friend and was actually talking to them… that was interesting and Chloe needed to get a look.

They were sitting on the couch, Beca's voice carried through the room while the blonde's face told all. Beca was enjoying herself, and the blonde was too.

"Kazan's litter got killed by a lynx. White Fang's brothers, sister, and even his dad got killed by a lynx. I'm sorry, but there is no way someone could make the same exact plotlines without a coincidence!" The blonde said while Beca smiled.

"Well, I mean the opening lines to many songs sound the same. What's different is the lyrics and execution." Beca answered. "And there is sampling, like Camila Cabello's _Bad Things_ and Fastball's _Out of my Head_. They are two completely different songs with nearly the same chorus."

"I've never heard of those songs before." The blonde frowned, and Chloe swore she looked like a golden retriever puppy.

(Yes she was really that blonde.)

"Really?" Beca's face lit up and she fished out her phone. "Here, you have to listen to Fastball. It's a great song."

They listened to the song together, and for the first time in her life, Chloe felt scared.

She spent much of the party watching the blonde and her wife, unsure how to react or approach. It wasn't that she had to approve of all of Beca's friends, that was absurd, but generally, Beca would have told her about the blonde by now and introduced her.

Chloe decided to take the initiative, "sack up", as Beca liked to call it. She walked over toward her wife of three years, beer in hand and smile plastered on her face.

"Hey Beca who's this?" Chloe asked, draping her arm over her wife's shoulders.

"Oh, Chloe this is Aubrey. Aubrey, this is my wife Chloe."

It had been three years since they got married, but Chloe's heart still fluttered every time she said the words. "My Wife." It took them so long because Beca refused to sign for a Civil Partnership, but they finally got the right to marry. 2013 had been the best year of her life, and she hoped Beca's too.

"Hello." The blonde said, smiling softly.

"Hello Aubrey!" Chloe smiled, "How are you liking the neighborhood?"

Something in the back of her mind told her she had seen this woman before, but Chloe couldn't place it. It felt familiar, something about trees, and lights… lights! Oh, she remembered this woman! She was the blonde who lived across the street who looked horrified at her lawn. Chloe had a sneaking suspicion that the people setting up Christmas decorations in the middle of the night were up to no good, after all who would want to do it then when you could do it in the morning with hot chocolate and your wife?

"It's nice." Aubrey said, almost as if she were asking the question, "Is nice an acceptable word?".

Chloe's heart melted, the poor woman was terrified.

"That's good! I hope you feel at home, every other Friday we host a party here, you're always invited. And if you ever want company just ring our bell!"

"Thank you?"

* * *

"What brought you here?" Beca asked, twirling her spoon through the cheap custard Aubrey bought from the nearby gas station.

"It was the cheapest area in San Diego." Aubrey shrugged.

Beca had brought over her soundboard, a few wires got loose and it wasn't connecting anymore. She couldn't afford a new one, and Aubrey had worked with electronics in a past life so the blonde was giving it a go.

"What brought you to San Diego? The Navy?"

Normally Aubrey wouldn't acknowledge personal questions, but it had been nearly three months since she had met Beca, and by now they were close enough for impersonal personal information.

"The Coast Guard, actually." Aubrey said, finally managing to thread a pesky wire through.

"Because you couldn't swim?"

Aubrey bit back a smile as she rolled her eyes.

"At least I'm tall enough."

Beca gasped and clutched her heart. Aubrey grinned and moved on, in between bites of horrid gas station custard.

"I enlisted and was stationed here for a few years. The VA is close by, and I managed to get a cheap loan."

"Oh that's cool." Beca finally took a bite out of her yellow dessert. "My dad used to teach at Barden University in Georgia, but then he transferred to San Diego State when I was young. He was heartbroken when I decided to "play music with weirdos" instead of going to State."

Aubrey snorted, before realizing her mistake as the custard flew out of her nose.

"Beca…"

The little DJ, wisely laying down her spoon, snorted too and started laughing.

"Dude your face!"


	3. The Wife

The next party Aubrey went too was peaceful, mostly because she spent most of the time talking to Beca about politics. They argued so much that they moved into a room and kept arguing until Chloe forced them to stop and go to bed.

Aubrey thought nothing of being in a closed room alone with Beca until Chloe barged in and shame flood through. She was a stranger, stealing away Beca into a room because she caused a frenzy in Chloe's wife. A passionate frenzy. In front of all their friends.

"Beca, it's nearly one." Chloe said.

They looked at each other, and Aubrey quickly took her leave.

"Good night, I'll see you all later."

She could feel their eyes burning in the back of her head.

* * *

There were times when Aubrey ran out of calculated moves, options really, and she ran on her own grit and understanding. That was fine at work and in her dealings with technology, but when it came to people it always fell short.

Minerva didn't matter, the blonde was unphased by anything Aubrey could do. It used to be a blessing, but then it turned into a curse because it left Aubrey unable to cope with normal people.

For instance, with the wife of the only friend Aubrey had in the neighborhood.

She avoided them, the entire place really. It seemed like the most rational move in Aubrey's panicked head. The non-irrational part of her was rolling its eyes and scolding her for being a coward and running away. She could fix her problems, just apologize and never do it again, but the blonde had no clue where to start.

Besides, how do you apologize for something like that?

* * *

The bell rang at noon the next Saturday. Aubrey found it odd, she knew Beca and the DJ never rang her bell early on the weekends. Weekends were for Beca to earn a living, and weekdays were for Beca to pester her.

She stopped her stitching, Minerva's lover could only sleep with a specific pillowcase, and since Minerva hadn't had the time to go shopping she needed it repaired.

Just as she feared, it wasn't the brunette but the brunette's excitable wife. In Chloe's arms was a pie, and on her face was a massive smile.

"Hello!" She said cheerfully, as Aubrey looked at her like a deer caught in the high beams of a pickup.

She would rather be that deer if she were being honest. It would be much easier to deal with the consequences of her actions if she were dead or run over.

"Hello." Aubrey whispered her heart rate spiking.

What should she do? She had never had to repair her relationships before. What should she say? What if she drove the ginger away? What if she had to mo...move… go back? The blonde trembled a little if Chloe noticed she didn't react, only smiling more and lifting the pie up.

"I just wanted to bring this pie over, as a truce."

A truce? For what? She was the one overstepping her boundaries!

"I know that you and Beca are just friends," Chloe said, her eyes darting all over the place. "But, I just wanted you to know that I think that's totes awesome! Beca doesn't have that many friends."

"Me either." Aubrey admitted before she pulled back the door. "Come in please."

She guided Chloe to the kitchen, taking the pillowcase and putting it on a chair. In her fridge was a cartoon of Dollar Store ice cream that Minerva bought her as a joke. At the very least she knew that pie was generally eaten with ice cream.

"Ice cream?"

"Yes thanks!"

Aubrey poked her pie, before gathering her will. She looked up at the waiting redhead, and gave her a tight smile.

"I'm sorry…"

"Don't be, I should be…"

"No." Aubrey shook her head and laughed. "No, let's eat."

"I've never had friends like that before." Aubrey admitted, the words tumbling out of her faster than she could stop them.

"And I've never been jealous like that before." Chloe said. "I guess we're both learning, but I promise I'd be really happy if we could be friends too."

The ginger smiled, and tentatively raised her fork. "To friends?"

"To friends." Aubrey toasted.

* * *

Aubrey groaned when she heard it. She knew she had to have the battery changed on her car, but she didn't expect it to be… now. The car groaned, wheezing until it gave up, it was the third time she had tried starting it.

The white Nissan Versa Note, named Mochi by Minerva's lover, had served her well for the past few years, even taking her from the South all the way across the country. However, she was about to scrape the piece of junk that decided to break down at exactly the day she had to go fight for QuestStar against the government.

Good Lord Above!

There was no time to waste, she would just walk the three miles and hitch a ride from Minerva. Unaware to her, a brunette and a ginger were watching from their window.

* * *

When Aubrey learned about Minerva's plans she almost threw a book at the other blonde's head. Minerva sensed the change in mood and quickly moved her away from the books so Aubrey had no choice but to face the taller blonde.

"What in the hell were you thinking?" Aubrey snapped. "Or drinking? Do you want me to tell R…"

Minerva scowled and cut her off.

"No! But we need something, something to throw Woolbright off. Understand this, he still thinks you are on leave. He also thinks that people could never like you after your… stunt. If you look vulnerable he will let down his guard, and that is when we will get him."

Aubrey rolled her eyes. "By looking poor?"

"Yes! It is not that hard," Minerva looked at her and grinned. "Your car is dead, I will send my contact over to fix it."

* * *

Of course, Minerva would send her contact out in the middle of the night. Aubrey was a few pages deep into a business contract when her phone lit up.

 **Recorder** : Hey, I'm here. [12:00]

Aubrey groaned and stretched, she had been sitting there since seven that evening. Or was it last evening?

 **Oubee-bee** : Will be there, one moment. [12:01]

Good Lord, if her neighbors in the South ever saw this they would raise hell. Minerva's contact was dressed in all black, sitting in a massive white van. Reyna smiled and waved to Aubrey, completely ignoring the fact it was midnight and they looked as shady as possible.

Of course, Minerva would send the one person who got a kick out of almost going to prison.

Reyna hopped out of the car, and waddled over to Mochi, whipping out her bright-ass flashlight and waving it around.

"Reyna my neighbors!" Aubrey snapped quietly while shielding her eyes.

"Sorry sorry." Said the not sorry hooligan.

Reyna worked quickly, replacing the battery and even checking all her components. While she was double checking her work, Aubrey went back in the house to get the Citric Acid she owed Minerva. Reyna was going back there long before she was anyway, so Aubrey thought it was the best time.

Her neighbors, a DJ and her wife, did not.

"Oh, would you like something to eat?" Aubrey asked, the thought suddenly popping into her head.

It was an hour drive back and Reyna had set up the bed for her before she moved in so Aubrey wanted to return the favor. And Reyna was a nice person, when she didn't have a death wish.

"Sure, yeah, yes please?" Reyna winced at her own words, sometimes the Asian got too excited for her own good. "Oh! I got something to show you!"

She whipped out a pocket knife and pointed the blade towards Aubrey so the blonde could see the blade. Etched into the blade was the ugliest cow Aubrey had ever seen in her life. It almost deserved to be made into burgers.

"It was so ugly I knew I had to take a picture, but I didn't know Minerva was gonna get it etched into a blade for April Fools. It's so ugly I don't want to eat its meat honestly."

Aubrey smiled and lead the shorter woman inside. By one Reyna left full and happy while Aubrey tried to finish up on her paperwork.

* * *

"Do you think…"

Beca shook her head. "No, I think it was a misunderstanding. I don't think Aubrey's like that dude."

"I mean, Beca," Beca's full name never came out unless it was serious. "She drives a cheap beater that's falling apart. She lives on disability from the government, and she eats dollar food!"

"Well, I mean…"

"And when do you let people into your house in the middle of the night for a few hours? And did you see that person? They even flipped out a knife to threaten her!"

Beca looked down at her plate, refusing to think about it. Yes, she had been worried and she wanted to march over there to see the man harassing her new blonde friend, but she wasn't a stranger to miscommunication.

"Look, Chloe, I know you're concerned, but just because she drives a cheap car doesn't mean anything. For all we know she could be filthy rich. I'll talk to her about it tomorrow."

* * *

Beca never noticed how empty Aubrey's house was until she walked in. There was a lot of empty space, carefully filled so it looked like there was much more than there really was. Instead of a grand living room there really was only two chairs, a rug, a table, and a flat screen. The seemingly busy kitchen counter only had a knife block with three knives, a dishrack with three plates, and the sink.

Aubrey only wore t-shirts and jeans, no jewelry or anything suggesting more than disability. Today was one of the few days when Aubrey wore her knee brace, it had been broken during her Coast Guard service and sometimes flared up causing the blonde to limp.

"Beca could you hand me a water bottle from the fridge?" The blonde asked, grimacing when she tried to stand.

"Yeah." Beca grabbed the requested water, taking a deep calming breath before turning to Aubrey.

"How… do you get through days like this?" Beca asked handing the bottle over. "When you can't walk?"

Aubrey looked at her, face blank and for the first time, Beca felt like she didn't know the woman in front of her. It was a scary feeling, her heart almost jumped. The only other time she ever felt that way was…

Then something gave in Aubrey's face and Beca relaxed. Aubrey was just embarrassed, she told herself. That was all.

"Normally I call a friend over, they're a veteran too so they understand. She brings me MREs and a case of water when she is really busy and can't stay too long."

"MREs?"

"They are basically Lunchables, but slightly more nutritious. You should try one, they are an experience. Three lies from the government all in one brown package."

Aubrey smiled and Beca laughed, she didn't get the joke but the way the blonde said it had her falling to her knees.

"Careful, I'm the one with the broken knee."

* * *

The next Bella dinner, after the one Aubrey skipped because of shame, Aubrey helped set up the table. The last dinner she had been to made Aubrey almost vomit, the table should have been set up in neat lines so that way two Bellas could be served at a time. Instead, food was thrown haphazardly into dishes all around the table, creating a mosh pit of sorts.

The strong got food, and the weakest had to lick their wounds over premade cookies.

Once Aubrey got involved she organized everything neatly and efficiently, fruits and appetizers near the beginning, entrees in the middle and desserts at the end of a line of tables.

Both sides could be accessed, so two people could serve themselves from one dish, and she had Chloe put out two to three smaller dishes rather than lump them all together in one big bowl to keep the line flowing.

Sometimes she brought her own contributions, a fruit plate here and a dessert there. The other Bellas did of course, but for some reason, Chloe and Beca were against the idea of _her_ bringing things. She learned to ignore their strange emotions and their weird logic.

The one first time Chloe confronted her, Aubrey spent the entire night folding napkins, keeping the table clean, and talking to Beca about pillows.

Once the Beale-Mitchell's learned to let it go, Aubrey finally started socializing with the other Bellas. Stacie was the first person she talked too, Stacie was an Engineering teacher at the local high school who used to work for Qualcomm but then decided she wanted to push more girls into the field.

She taught alongside Chloe, who taught Music and Dance. Chloe offered to teach her Salsa dancing, which caused Aubrey to almost choke and Beca to gasp. They ruled that out quickly.

Then there was Flo, who introduced herself after Aubrey and Beca started arguing about business practices. Beca, of course, was well out of her league. Aubrey had business laws and practices cemented in her head, she could draft business deals in her dreams.

"Are you a lawyer?" Flo had asked her one night.

Aubrey had panicked if she said yes than Flo would have Googled her and then her secret would leak to the entire neighborhood. But saying no was a lie, and she hated the thought of lying to the people she now considered friends.

"No, I'm studying to become a paralegal." Aubrey stuttered, shaking her head.

"Oh." Flo groaned. "Well, maybe you can help me. I have a Juice Shop, and this guy keeps trying to push me out of business. Buster Woolbright, he's a jerk. Back in my village, we would have beat him with stones."

"I'm sure that's illegal here." Beca laughed.

Aubrey tried not to react, Buster Woolbright was one of her biggest obstacles in getting things done at QuestStar. If she could help Flo take him down she could get enough support in the local government to get certain bills passed.

The next dinner party, her third, Aubrey's knee ached, so Chloe setup while Aubrey directed from the couch. Beca had to hand her drinks and plates, which caused amused looks from the other Bellas.

"What happened to your knee?" Cynthia Rose, an African American woman with a buzz cut asked.

Aubrey had a sneaking suspicion about it.

"My knee was broken in the Coast Guard, a drug smuggler took a cheap shot." Aubrey shrugged, rubbing the aggravated joint.

It was the second most painful experience in her life, the knee pain, the agony as it sank in what had happened to her. Then the rage and depression afterward while she rehabilitated.

"Oh, I was in the Air Force." Cynthia Rose shrugged. "I broke my back after getting run over by a drunk Sergeant."

"Oh."

The silence seemed to stretch on until Cynthia Rose smiled.

"Puddle Guardians."

"Chair Force."

Both grinned at each other before shaking hands, Cynthia Rose was helped by her wife and Beca helped Aubrey up. Chloe almost cried, Aubrey finally found more friends.

* * *

"So, we know you were in the Coast Guard, what else?" Stacie asked once all the Bellas introduced themselves.

Again Aubrey froze, she never made a cover story which in hindsight was her fault. She should have seen this day coming, ever since Beca asked for a cup of sugar it was inevitable.

"I went home, tried to get a degree, failed, and then came here to finish up my paralegal studies." Aubrey answered quickly, grateful she didn't stutter though. "I think a change of environment helped with my de… dealing with my knee."

Aubrey took a deep breath, she didn't mean to reveal this much to the girls, but something about their compassion and lack of judgment made Aubrey's walls melt and crumble. Normally she would be far more composed, faking a story quickly and never thinking about it again, but now she wanted to scream for forgiveness after lying to them all.

Chloe saved her, Aubrey hoped on purpose, by screaming "Who's ready for Jiggle Juice?"

A collective groan and a few sighs rose from the aging Bellas who couldn't drink like they used to.

* * *

Aubrey was walking through Walmart, not really because she wanted to but it was one of those few places that still sold what she was looking for. A cheap flip phone. There were a few calls she had to make and she didn't want anyone listening in.

Not that she didn't trust Minerva, but in their business not listening meant the difference between life or death. The moment everything was set up she called straight to the burner phone's number Minerva had her contact drop off that morning.

"I don't think you were in the right mind when you told me those numbers," Minerva answered, her voice bleached of emotions, eerily calm.

That meant their fathers were getting involved. Aubrey swallowed, even after all this time the mere thought of General Posen brought her back to a vulnerable state. He could bring her to her knees with a thought of displeasure.

Both Generals, long retired but still proudly holding that rank of a former life, had decided to follow news on the company after Aubrey's incident. Not because they had been disgusted, which should have been the first sign that her family and everyone associated with them was deranged.

No, instead General Posen followed company news because he wanted to make sure Aubrey had continued doing "What was right and just.". General Casimir, Minerva's father, followed the news just to see if Aubrey would pull another stunt like it again.

"I know my math Minerva." Aubrey answered back, getting ready for her drive over to the Beale - Mitchells.

All she heard was Minerva's soft grunt of displeasure before the line died.

It wasn't over.


End file.
